Celebrities, customers and young transport superfans share what they love about London’s transport network for a new series of Transport for London's award winning ‘Mind the Gap’ podcast

Transport for London (TfL) launches a new series of its award-winning ‘Mind the Gap' podcast series today, to celebrate 25 years of supporting the growth and development of the capital, with a host of celebrities, the Deputy Mayor for Transport in London, London’s Transport Commissioner, customers, staff and young transport superfans. 

This series focuses on the creation of TfL in 2000, how new innovations improved the transport network such as the Elizabeth line, Night Tube and contactless payment. The series also looks back on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, its legacy and how it has led to significant accessibility improvements, plus how the growth of active travel has helped shape London’s green heartbeat.

As part of the celebrations for its 25th anniversary, TfL has also given different transport services a new look as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, with the same distinctive blue design featuring across the exterior of eight different TfL services for the first time, including a Jubilee line Tube, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), Elizabeth line and London Overground trains.

The distinctive new designs highlight the many innovative customer improvements to London's transport network and recognise TfL's impact on the capital's growth since 2000. These include the launch of the world-first contactless Oyster card in 2003, buses becoming fully accessible in 2005 and the launch of the Elizabeth line in 2022.

The third series of Mind the Gap sees the return of railway historian and broadcaster Tim Dunn as the show's presenter and contains a range of celebrity guests, including former TfL employee, writer and comedian Babatunde Aléshé, who speaks about his time working in TfL’s Contact Centre, his favourite parts of the TfL network and his upcoming UK tour. Tim also speaks with singer Heather Small, whose song ‘Proud’ soundtracked the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In the same episode, Tim meets with Olympic gold medallist rower, Pete Reed OBE. Reed, who suffered a spinal stroke in 2019. Pete Reed OBE is a leading campaigner in accessibility and speaks passionately about working closely with TfL over accessibility improvements on the network. 

Tim also heads to the London Transport Museum to speak to some very special guest winners of the TfL 25 Superfan competition, aged 5–16, who share why they love TfL.

The third instalment of the ‘Mind the Gap’ podcast is part of a series that will be released each week on Thursdays from 18 September to 9 October:

Episode one – The creation of TfL with special guests, writer and comedian Babatunde Aleshe, London’s Transport Commissioner Andy Lord and Manager of TfL Corporate Archives Tamara Thornhill 

• In this episode Babatundespeaks with Tim about his time working in TfL’s Contact Centre and his favourite parts of the TfL network
• London’s Transport Commissioner Andy Lord speaks about his career journey and his pride in TfL and those who have helped to keep London moving over the past 25 years 
• Tamara provides insightful background into how TfL was born 25 years ago, what the London transport network looked like before 2000 and how the creation of TfL has helped bring huge improvements to London’s transport system

Episode two – The Olympics and managing transport during major London events with special guests, singer Heather Small MBE, Olympic Gold medallist rower Pete Reed OBE, TfL Chief Customer Officer, Mark Evers, Events Planning Manager at TfL, Joan Saunders-Reece  

• TfL’s Chief Customer Officer Mark Evers, speaks about readying London’s transport network for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and how TfL turned this enormous challenge into a huge success
• Olympic gold medallist rower, Pete Reed OBE, who suffered a spinal stroke in 2019, speaks passionately about working closely with TfL over accessibility improvements on the network
• M People singer Heather Small, speaks about the pride she has in her song ‘Proud’ being the soundtrack to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
• One of TfL’s most legendary trailblazers Joan Saunders-Reece, who was the first female Train Operator on the Victoria line, speaks about her role as an Events Planning Manager during major events, from the fallout of the 7/7 attacks to Notting Hill Carnival 

Episode three – Innovation with special guests DJ Jaguar and TfL Director of Tech Strategy & Revenue, Shashi Verma

• Shashi Verma, who has been at the forefront of tech innovation at TfL, speaks about the introduction of Oyster card in 2003 and being the first transport company in the world to introduce Contactless payment cards to ticketing systems
• Radio One host, DJ Jaguar, speaks about the importance of Night Tube to provide a gateway for young artists, and how it allows customers, especially young women to be able to travel home safely at night

Episode four – London’s green heartbeat with special guests Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance, TfL customers and young transport superfans

• Deputy Mayor Seb Dance speaks about his role in creating a strong green heartbeat in London through active travel. Seb also speaks on how the cycling network has developed, the electrification of the transport network and the importance of reaching the goal of having 80 per cent of Londoners using public transport and active travel by 2041
• Tim meets the TfL 25 superfan winners at the London Transport Museum. The children aged between 5-16 speak with Tim about their love of the TfL network, before some final words from TfL’s customers

Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance, said: “It is a real pleasure to feature on the new series of TfL’s award-winning ‘Mind the Gap’ podcast as we mark TfL’s 25^th anniversary this year. For 25 years, TfL has been connecting Londoners to work, education and leisure opportunities, working to deliver a transport network that is worthy of the greatest city in the world.

“The Mayor and I want to continue building a network that’s cleaner, greener and even more inclusive for all Londoners. That means further expanding our electric bus fleet, making more of the network step free and building even more walking and cycling infrastructure that enables people to make healthier, more sustainable transport choices.”

Andy Lord, London Transport Commissioner, said: "It’s great to be welcoming back the ‘Mind the Gap’ podcast and I had a lot of fun making my first appearance on the show. There is so much to delve into for this series and to do justice to the work that has been achieved by everyone associated with TfL over the past 25 years. I’m immensely proud of all the work that has been achieved over the past 25 years and those I’ve had the privilege to be part of and I look forward to seeing what we will achieve over the next 25 years to make London’s transport network even better for all.” 

Singer Heather Small who features on the ‘Mind Gap’ podcast talking about how her song ‘Proud’ become the soundtrack for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, said: "Great fun being on the podcast and can’t wait to catch the rest of the episodes while I’m backstage on tour. Big happy birthday to TfL from a proud Londoner (and now proud owner of a 60+ Oyster card… yes, really. Lol)."

The third series of the podcast follows the success of series two, which focused on the London Overground line names. It once again reached number 1 in Apple Podcasts 'Places and Travel' chart and received even more downloads than series one, with more than 100,000 downloads per episode.